


Perfect Hostage

by claudiapriscus



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Episode: s03e24 A Devil of My Word, F/M, Gen, Missing Scene, Relationship(s), meta disguised as fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 11:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19425115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claudiapriscus/pseuds/claudiapriscus
Summary: He'll not storm heaven for her.In the moments after escaping Pierce, Lucifer faces an unwelcome truth.





	Perfect Hostage

As ever, it hits him with all the terrible clarity of a lighting bolt: he will not storm heaven for her. But while it’s not a new thought, it’s one he’s tried to put away. Unsuccessfully.

It returns with a vengeance in the moment after their escape. He’s fled for the roof, and he’s so sure, he’s so sure for a moment that it’s only to watch her die. But it isn’t and she’s not, and he can see just how very close it came. Stupid, brave, foolish, headstrong. Too vulnerable. Too _mortal_. There’s a bullet, and it’s not even a matter of inches. He’s not sure what notion frightens him more: that his father had a hand in that near-miss...or that he didn’t. But she’s fine, she will be fine.

(And chasing on the heels of that thought, not banished quickly enough: when she dies, it will be the end. _He will not storm heaven for her._ He watches her wake, and it’s all he can think.)

Humanity lives, humanity dies. And then...they continue. Their souls, after all, linger forever, preserved eternal as anything else above or below. But for a brief handful of years, they burn like fireworks, free to shape their own fates to a degree granted to nothing else in creation. Mortal lives are brief, bright sparks, and he’s never once minded the way they can’t be long grasped. Their lives entranced him, their souls did not.

But hers…but hers. One day she will be as eternal and unchanging as the rest, and yet... The more he treasures her mortal days, the more he cares for the fate of her immortal soul. She’s heaven bound, and he will destroy hell before he sees that change. She will find happiness, and she will find peace, and her soul will shine so brightly among all the uncounted number of the righteous dead.

In her, heaven has found its perfect hostage. One day she will die...and then? He will sue for peace without reservation, conditions, or hesitation. 

She blinks up at him. He traces the hole the bullet carved in her shirt, and thinks of the inevitable brevity of mortal days, and the eternal salvation that follows. 

"What happened?" she says, and the words are small and unnerved and unsure. 

"You're safe," he tells her. "That's all that matters," and he means it. It's a thought as cutting as the first time, and as final as the last.

_He will not storm heaven for her._

**Author's Note:**

> So....first fic in like....five years? Just when you think you're out, fandom pulls you back in. 
> 
> This was inspired by a few different fics I encountered while on my epic AO3 binge (following the epic netflix binge that introduced me to this crazy show.) Lots of people are toying with the idea of what happens when Chloe dies, and I just wanted to play around with a different spin on that. (And no sooner did I start doing that, I got jumped by thoughts about how different the perceptions of life and death would be for immortals for whom the afterlife is a destination spot, not an end.)
> 
> Extra end note: Where can I find fandom? What's the main way fandom folks find each other now? Where do the challenges live? Give me your recs. In the old days, I would have been hitting up the LJ comms like nobody's business. Tumblr? (I'm on tumblr, but mostly passively.)


End file.
